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Monday, 27 June 2016

I used last week's garlic scapes along with some fresh basil (and store-bought cherry tomatoes) for this delicious pasta shared with a friend (and repeated later in the week just for myself!).

I'm linking in to Our Happy Acres for the weekly Harvest Monday submission.

I had a bit of time over the weekend for maintenance and got a solid bout of weeding and watering done. These onions were accidental harvests.

These radishes had bolted at least two weeks ago and I finally got around to pulling them out. Of the dozen or so radish, these few were just large enough to eat while the rest ended up in the compost.

And here is how large the plants themselves were to produce such tiny radish!

Same goes for the daikon radish I was trying to grow. They are supposed to be very large but they bolted early on so I pulled them yesterday.

And these peas, oh my ... I planted 7 plants but only one survived. That one plant was stunted and produced these two pods which were still tasty, but that's all there is. I pulled the plant.

And here are two Feher Ozon peppers. I'm pretty sure they are supposed to turn colours, maybe orange or red. But I've never grown them before so thought I'd pick these and see how they taste.

And that's what I have going on. I'll be popping by Harvest Monday postings to see what other gardeners have on the go this week!

Sunday, 26 June 2016

These photos are from yesterday after I managed to mow the lawn and do a bit of cleanup in the yard. The main photo is my new fenced area around what used to be the old greenhouse - so that back wall (which needs some new paint!) was the back of the commercial sized greenhouse that I used to have on the property. It looked kind of hideous on its own, so I thought a nice fence would improve the look. I think it works?! A friend asked what animals I was going to keep in the fenced area ... I was actually thinking it was for keeping plants in and animals out. But now I realize I have some options. Maybe some chickens or a goat?

And here are some of the things going on around here these days (other things as well, just didn't get around to everything):

Several varieties of basil

Xanthia peppers

Chocolate Cherry Tomatoes

Ruby Red Chard

Another Xanthia pepper

Various brassica ... brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli ...

Shelling Peas

Various Carrots surrounded by Red Onions

What!? Will I actually grow a good-sized beet?

Red onion

A mass of garlic

One of the Porcelain garlic varieties

Red Amaranth (Callaloo)

Beans in front, potatoes in the rear

Mama Robin left an egg in the nest, other babies gone now

And ... in the greenhouse:

King of the North pepper

Feher Ozon pepper

?? Can't remember what pepper this is

Or this

Feher Ozon peppers

Gypsy peppers

Apple cukes

I definitely need a round of organic fertilizer soon. Plants all look strong, but not quite as well as they should with the crazy hot days we've had.

Monday, 20 June 2016

My first garlic scapes have arrived - these come mostly from the faster growing Porcelain varieties. The red russian garlic that I usually grow is just starting to show signs of scapes and are close to half the thickness in the stalk. But lots of time to go.

And more greens. The picture of the large basket shown above was taken before I cleaned and split everything out. It includes black and white russian kale, over a pound of spinach, and another basket of lettuce greens.

I've been working long days on a project for some time, often getting home in the dark (so my apologies if I'm not on top of comments whether it is my blog or many of you whom I follow regularly). The gardens are generally full of weeds and I usually only have a short time early in the morning for watering. But despite all of that, with the temperatures and regular (though short) watering schedule, everything still seems to do be doing pretty well.

If I can keep this up, I should have peppers from the greenhouse soon (already have plenty of unripened peppers on the plants as well a very few green tomatoes). The squash plants are just getting underway as are the carrots and beets. Potato plants are flowering and I have plenty of herbs for the picking. I'm also somewhat surprised that the few cabbage and broccoli plants I have are still holding up in this heat wave we are having.

I'm looking forward to seeing what other gardeners are doing this week by linking in to the Harvest Monday posts hosted by Our Happy Acres. Check it out!

Sunday, 12 June 2016

This is my submission to Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres. This week I've finally had my first harvest of lettuce! This is Bon Vivant mix from William Dam Seeds.

I've also harvested some long overdue arugula - in fact, it had bolted some time ago and I just got around to pulling it out. It was made into a sort-of pasta dish with soba noodles and lots of garlic.

And I've had a nasty cold / cough for some time now and decided to take advantage of some mullein growing in my yard to make a tea - supposedly good for respiratory ailments.